A luminaire is a lighting unit commonly installed on a ceiling. Usually luminaire housings are formed of a host housing unit and a pivotally attached door with a lighting assembly mounted onto the door. New doors are often retro-fit to conform to existing housing units. A hinge is employed to couple the door to the housing unit for the door to pivot between open and closed positions.
Prior art host housing units commonly include a interior flange for sealing and engaging a door and coupling the door to the housing unit by a hinge member. The flange is inserted in between the door and the hinge. The hinge itself is attached to the door panel at one end and pivotally connected to the housing flange at its opposing end.
For the retro-fit door of a luminaire housing to move smoothly and precisely between open and closed positions, the door must be positioned appropriately with respect to the flange and the housing unit, and the door must not obstruct the flange itself. Prior art hinges neglect to provide a way of easily positioning the door to fit appropriately with the housing unit. As a result, the burden is on the operator to couple the door with the housing unit to ensure that the door is properly positioned.
In addition, the prior art hinges do not prevent the door from obstructing and/or damaging the flange. Specifically, if the door is hung to close to the rear flange of the housing unit, the door panel will obstruct and bend the flange downwardly upon attempting to close the door.
Examples of prior art hinges employed with a housing and door are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 4,345,697 to Wilson et al.; and 4,308,972 to McReynolds et al.